MEET THE BAND: (From Left to Right) Chase Stain, vocals and bass Tim "Tad Gurthman" Ford, drums Randy "Moe Money" Hatch, vocals and guitar.
HEADQUARTERS: West Phoenix
HOW THEY GOT THEIR START: Before Numbers On Napkins, the guys cut their musical teeth in different punk bands while attending Glendale's Moon Valley High School. Stain and Hatch became friends while frequenting the same venues with their respective bands, Dirty Laundry and Cobalt Bloom. When those projects dissolved in 2002, they teamed up to launch Yars Revenge, named after a video game popular in the 80's. They changed their name to Numbers On Napkins in 2003, after dropping one of their guitarists and becoming a trio.
WHAT THEY SOUND LIKE: Infectious poppy-punk tracks Runaway and Burning Bridges on the band's full-length debut CD, Waiting for Tomorrow, sound like odes to such standard-bearers of '90s punk as Lagwagon and Guttermouth.The 10-song album is a melodic, hook-filled collection with a wide range of moods, from sentimental to angry and all the way to raunchy, with such mildly offensive tracks as Boobies and Fat Girls. Survival tip for girls: If a band member asks your name and invites you onstage as they play True Love, just say no. “We wanted to be sort of anti-P.C. and anti-women, but it's just for fun,” Stain says. “The next album is going to be more anti-old people, but we won't go into racial or homosexual things”. Waiting for Tomorrow was released on the band's own label, Bad Stain Records, late last year. Band members also run their own booking company, Laundromat Productions. “I've got way too much on my plate,” Stain says. He plans to release his first solo album, eponymously titled Chase Stain, in March. Some of the band's biggest influences are the Mars Volta and Mike Patton of Faith No More. According to Stain, Bad Stain Records conducted business with indie-rock ensemble At the Drive In when Mars' Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez were still a part of the band. ”I e-mailed Mars Volta to try to get backstage passes to their last show, but they don't talk to us anymore,“ Stain says. “Less Than Jake used to work with us, too, but they don't talk to us either. Over time, many bands start to gain in popularity and you lose touch, and then it’s a ain ti tne ass to get in contact with them .”
HOW THEY GOT THEIR NAME: “It means picking up on chicks,” Stain says. “I hate the name. ”Runners-up were Voluptuous Catastrophe and Stain's favorite, Three Chord Mafia.” I was positive the other guys were going to love that name,” he says.
THEIR NEXT SHOW: 9 p.m. Sunday. Jugheads, 5110 E. McDowell Road, Phoenix. (602) 225-0307. $6.
DETAILS: www.badstainrecords.com/non
